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Topic: What did you do today to prep... (Read 3008384 times)

Been a while since I posted. Went to the Springfield, MO "Get Prepared Expo". Got to meet many nice people, including Margery Wildcraft. My wife, son and I went to 20hrs worth of trainings all included in the cost of the ticket. Best weekend ever. Learned more in one weekend than I could have ever imagined possible. I highly recommend going to one in your area if you ever get a chance.

Picked up 12 #10 cans of Mountain House.

Got some books on gardening.

Added to my knowledge by replacing my dishwasher myself.

Took advantage of sales on can goods and added to my food storage with Thanksgiving specials as well as rotated some older, but still good, stock to give to the boy scouts scouting for food program.

Made homemade bread.

Picked up a 5 gal metal gas can from the local flee market for $8, just needs some paint.

Today I'm getting a piano from a neighbor. It's costing me to have it moved professionally ($200)-but that's it. It's an old fashioned upright It will be great for my son to practice on (he's taking lessons) but also it's a form of musical entertainment that doesn't require any batteries or electricity--unlike the small portable keyboard we already have.

Of course it is completely not portable! But hey, that's what guitars and harmonicas are for-right?

Pretty busy night last evening. Went on a couponing run and had to go to 2 grocery stores because some "food hoarder" like me cleaned out the shelves of what I came in to buy.

I ended up with $54.22 worth of food for $21.22 (almost 61%) — not bad for my 2nd outing with the coupon binder! I'll never be one of those fools on TV spending 80hrs a week on my grocery shopping, but my goal for 2013 is to be financially organized. Running my kitchen as efficiently as a good restaurant kitchen (on a small scale), and eating out less is another.

Came home and thought I would bring up a small amp and some speakers from the basement since they were not being used, and my house re-organization project is taking high priority right now. What I intended to be an hour of work ended up being a 6 hour project, but I was able to make use of a few pieces of furniture, and remove 2 big pieces taking up space in the house.

After repurposing things in the house to accomplish some tasks I originally thought I would need to spend money to accomplish, AND getting more cleaning / organizing done at the same time was a nice boost.

My lack of Cable and High Speed Internet from the cable company are not bothering me in the least. My bill had crept up to over $150/mo and now I have a portable internet connection for $50 that is fast enough for everything I need, plus I moved my antenna around and picked up a bunch of new TV channels. After hooking up an antenna, using the Roku box for internet content, including this podcast, a media server set up on my "family" computer, and some other trickery I have much more "entertainment" available for 1/3 the cost every month, AND a fast enough internet connection to do any WORK that needs to get done.

Right here is a potential $300/mo savings give or take, depending on how organized I get with cooking to the point I never go out to eat for lunch when I am at work anymore. My new job is located a lot further away from any neighborhoods conducive to eating out for lunch like the place I work now.

I am hoping the new income, while simultaneously continuing to cut costs (without giving up too many things I enjoy) will help me get out of debt, and at LEAST get my monthly budget in tune.

Right here is a potential $300/mo savings give or take, depending on how organized I get with cooking to the point I never go out to eat for lunch when I am at work anymore. My new job is located a lot further away from any neighborhoods conducive to eating out for lunch like the place I work now.

I am hoping the new income, while simultaneously continuing to cut costs (without giving up too many things I enjoy) will help me get out of debt, and at LEAST get my monthly budget in tune.

Don't tell my coworkers, but I have a 2x2 filing cabinet system in my cubicle (four drawers total). As you probably know, filing cabinet drawers are pretty deep. I don't have that many files. I keep all my files at the front of my cube so that if you were to open it a foot or so, you would never know what's in the back. If SHTF while I was at work and for some reason I could not leave, I have enough food to feed myself for approx. 2 weeks. That's a little over a month's worth just feeding myself for lunch. It's not all cheap junk food either. Yes, I do have plenty of Ramen back there, but I also have instant rice, instant potatoes, homemade jerky, big bags of peanuts, pistachios, and cashews, tuna, homemade jam and some other good stuff. I also have things like bags of flour, sugar, salt, and a seasoning 'missle' for making things tastier.

Everything I have here except for the standard bread, lunch meat, and cheese with mayo and mustard meets the following requirements:

1. good shelf life2. low profile3. tastes good4. doesn't HAVE to be cooked (technically the ramen, rice and potatoes are edible just by adding water and waiting).

I also keep a fully stocked GHB on the floor under my desk. It looks like a typical laptop bag. In my truck (which I keep at least 2/3 of a tank of gas in), I keep a fully stocked Action Packer (Large size to account for the snow gear) full of food, supplies, lights, camp stove, snow gear (2xboots, 2xcoveralls, 4xsocks, 4xhats, 4xgloves). The boots actually stay outside of the action packer. Rolled up in a tarp next to the Action Packer are two sleeping bags, two wool blankets, and two more winter jackets each with a pair of socks and a pair of gloves in the pockets. These would be used as pillows.

Sorry... I just went off on a major tangent...

Anyway, the whole point of this post is to say that you can save a lot of money on lunches at work by keeping a good stock of food at work. I use my stock to supplement what I cook and bring from home. That way if I forget to pack a lunch or wake up late I don't have to choose between skipping lunch or going out.

Though my brother-in-law lives in the area, Paul and his wife are the closest thing to family that my sister-in-law has in the area. They treat her like a sister. Though Paul and I had to bear a few "crazy survivalist" jabs over dinner, everyone was happy to talk about inverters, water, preps for blackouts/ice storms, and my garden successes and (funnier) failures.

I THINK Paul's wife might go a little easier on him after meeting another nut (me) and his beautiful wife who are pretty normal but do things to live a better life even if times get rough.

Regardless, those two are living the ideals of building community and I'm proud to have met them.

The 4Bs of Anthood:Bullets - CheckBeans Short Term - Check Long Term - Whole lotta work to do, but growing every day.Bandages - Almost to "comfortable minimum"Brotherhood - Creating community one conversation at a time

"I went down Virginia, seekin' shelter from the storm.Caught up in the fable, I watched the tower grow.Five year plans and new deals, wrapped in golden chains.And I wonder, still I wonder who'll stop the rain."

"I went down Virginia, seekin' shelter from the storm.Caught up in the fable, I watched the tower grow.Five year plans and new deals, wrapped in golden chains.And I wonder, still I wonder who'll stop the rain."

Woke up this morning and roasted some Costa Rica green coffee beans on my homemade Rocket stove on the back porch. (just to see if I could) It was interesting in that the beans released more oil then I've ever gotten on the electric stovetop inside. I think it was due to the concentrated heat. If you do this, remember to stir constantly.

I rotated the gasoline stores and picked up a few extra LTS items on sale at the grocery store.

Logged

"I went down Virginia, seekin' shelter from the storm.Caught up in the fable, I watched the tower grow.Five year plans and new deals, wrapped in golden chains.And I wonder, still I wonder who'll stop the rain."

There's no Black Friday up here for me to contend with, but I picked up a Remington 870 Express Tactical (with Ghost Ring sites and ported Remchoke tube) that was on sale for less than $460 after taxes.

While adding this shotgun hardly ranks near the top of preparedness measures, the idea of a relatively compact shotgun that could double for upland game, turkeys, deer (with slugs) and perhaps even beaverpond ducks with the right choke tubes seemed too good to pass. It could fit nicely into my Eberlestock pack or a scabbard. The white dot on the front site makes it very easy to acquire and yet it's small enough that I think that I could easily swing and shoot it like a regular shotgun when using shot on game.

I should point out that even though I'm in Canada that we're already beginning to experience shortages of popular firearms due to the political climate and gun buying south of the border. Had I not purchased this gun today, the store would have probably sold out within days and it could be several months to a year before the item becomes available again, probably at a higher price. I'm told that popular guns like Ruger 10/22s are selling out almost as soon as they arrive on dealers shelves and that overall available stock is diminishing. My only other option for the shotgun would have been to purchase one sight unseen from Cabala's Canada if they still had them in stock for about another $125 extra (shipping and higher price).

I don't mean to distract people from other more important preps, but just mean to point out that some foresight when it comes to purchasing firearms that you've already had an eye on might save you some wait time and money.

ordered some Pri-G GAS treatment (all sold out on the shelves everywhere here). ordered Mylar bucket liners and some freeze dried food.

Logged

“There is no such thing as pure good or pure evil, least of all in people. In the best of us there are thoughts or deeds that are wicked, and in the worst of us, at least some virtue. An adversary is not one who does loathsome acts for their own sake. He always has a reason that to him is justification. My cat eats mice. Does that make him bad? I don't think so, and the cat doesn't think so, but I would bet the mice have a different opinion.”? Terry Goodkind, Wizard's First Rule

A week ago our house was broken into for the 2nd time in two years while the wife and I were at work. The violation you feel is incredible. This time we determined the B&E occurred during the time that my wife and two young daughters normally get home at the end of the day however just by chance this particular day they had to stop by the grocery store for some quick items. My wife was definitely slapped in the face with reality this time and she was scared. She realized that if she had walked in on someone they would have two choices to make "Fight or Flight" and thank God it didn't turn out differently. She now has shown interest in getting her concealed weapons permit which makes me happy however I'm saddened that it took this event to make her realize the cruel world.

Since the B&E, I've done a few things to prep. I've added some deterant security system yard signs, window stickers, and "Beware of dog" signs. In order to validate the dog signs, I purchased up two German Shepherd puppies as our old yellow lab is too much of a kind hearted baby. We had been planning on adding a new dog to the family however this event just expedited the action. I've also ordered some one-way transparency window film for one particularly vulnerable access point to our house where people can easily see in. Finally I researched survelliance camera systems and consulted a friend in loss prevention at a large nationwide clothing store and reviewed what they use and how they use it. I've since determined where the cameras will be placed outside our house and have ordered a good quality system on-line and not a cheapy from the local yokel stores. As the Michigan State trooper said, you can't stop the violations from occurring however you can try and catch the bastards that have violated your home.

Canning turkey stock and pumpkins. Two pressure canners on my stove top is interesting. the dial unit a coworker left at my house make me appreciate the all american canner. Attempting to use tattler lids on a few jars. I have not had any luck with them in the pressure canner so far. then on two toss the blackberries in the cider.

I had a double take when I received my membership is about to expire notification today for the survival podcast. It already has been two years, time has flown by faster than I could believe. So I renewed . . .

I just finished my major Christmas shopping and ordered a few things from Shelf Reliance during their Black Friday sale. If you are looking at the Harvest 72 getting on their Black Friday add has the best price I have ever seen. (249+shipping+taxes)